Friday, July 5, 2019

I recently visited HATCH Yakitori + Bar, which is located inside the new retail and restaurant space in downtown LA, The Bloc. In addition to checking out this restaurant for the first time, it was also my first time visiting The Bloc, which is a pretty cool open-air plaza with more restaurants coming. The Bloc has pretty cheap parking up to 3 hours with validation, which is really nice for downtown! For 3 hours parking is $4 with validation. The parking alone would entice me to go back to HATCH, but let's get on with the food.

HATCH obviously serves yakitori, but they also have other izakaya style food and a seasonal specials menu. They had a seared wagyu nigiri special which I just had to get.
They seared it tableside and it was so good, our favorite of the night, for sure.
Among the other specials that was another luxurious item: Alaskan king crab legs!

Sunday, November 4, 2018

We all know that when it comes to snacks, both in packaging and flavors, Japan has got it down. Well, now we can all try all these famous Japanese snacks with a new subscription box, Bokksu!

Bokksu is a subscription box of Japanese omiyage (snacks). Each month's box is themed and filled with a nice selection of goodies and they also have an online market so you can buy more of the ones you like. I tried one month's box for free back in July, which was citrus-themed.
The citrus box has a couple of orange pound cakes, yuzu green tea from Satsumarche, lemon-flavored Tokyo Rusk biscuits, jelly, a Meiji chocolate orange biscuits, handmade yuzu candy, and more. Here's the full list.
The subscription box pricing ranges from $33-39 per month depending on how much you pay in advance (paying for 12 boxes all at once gives you the cheapest price). Each box contains 20-25 snacks.
There's also a cheaper box with 10-14 snacks for $22-25 per box.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

When the owner of O Ya, Tim Cushman, opened up Hojoko, everyone was naturally excited about the new izakaya in the Fenway Kenmore neighborhood. The large restaurant is located inside the Verb Hotel and has a cool funky vibe. They also play anime movies on the back screen!

Food-wise, Hojoko is good, but the menu can be hit-or-miss, not for the flavors necessarily, but for the price.

One of the items I would recommend ordering is the Torched uni, soy, olive oil, shiso, parsley, nori butter, toast ($14)

They gave a good amount of the creamy uni, though the star of the dish is the umami-packed nori butter. You don't want to give that up even after you're done with the toast! This is definitely one of their more unique and creative dishes.

Funky chicken ramen (rich chicken broth, soy egg, menma, robata-grilled koji chicken). This used to be $9 which was a great deal but they've raised the price to $12 last time I returned.

It was still a lovely bowl of ramen, though, especially if you're looking for something lighter than the usual, rich tonkotsu broth. And I do love the grilled chicken that it came with.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

No, I'm not talking about going to Gaja and putting the batter on the grill, but actually making okonomiyaki from scratch! It's one of the many classes that Yoko Issasi teaches in her Japanese Foodstory class. Each of her small group class takes place in a small studio downtown, around a large wooden table that she outfitted herself.

OKONOMIYAKI RECIPE
First, you have to make the flour mix, which is:
1 cup or 4 oz of weak flour, can be substituted by cake flour
1 cup dashi stock, and ..

1/2 cup yamaimo (slimy yam)

If you've never had yamaimo .. it's a yam like you've never had. When you grate the yam, you will get a bowl of slimy stuff!

In a large bowl, put weak (or cake) flour with dashi stock. Whisk well until smooth, then add grated yamaimo and mix well.